My Thought of My Classes After One Week

I had been one week since the class started. I have been to all classes except for two discussion session which will only be available starting this week. I only seen the earlier part of the classes, but it is sufficient enough for me to give my thoughts about them.

For this semester, I am taking 5 class with 15 credit hours total (3 credit for each class). These are the classes that I take:

PSYCH 202 - Introduction to Psychology

I failed this class last semester, so of course, I still need to take it. It's a challenge to myself to success in a class that I have failed before. Learning psychology is very interesting especially when you can connect between what you learn and your everyday life. There are two possible reasons why I failed this course last sem. First, it all went wrong when one of the early things that I had to learn is leaned more towards biology. As it is not what I expected, I started to turn away from the class. I'm not really interested in biology anyway. Furthermore, when I learn about biology first, psychology later, I just can't see the connection, and suddenly I lost interest. I know it's a lame excuse from me, but I'm just a normal human being that don't want to learn what I don't like. But then during the later part of the semester I realized the importance of learning the biological expect of psychology. I didn't regret it, because knowledge are not meant for grades, and I'm willing to take it again. The second reason (it's short, don't worry) is because the class is late at evening, which I prefer to stay at my room doing nothing at that time. So, I learnt my lesson and I won't repeat the same mistakes this time.

LCA 100 - Intro to Cultures of Asia

As the name suggest, this class is about Asian cultures. This class has total of 6 books that we have to read. In my opinion. it is not that many if we plan to read it in organized manner. Like one week we have to read about 100 pages, so don't do last minute reading! Keep it short but consistent, and that's the best way to read. Spend about two hour (maybe less) per day to read 20 pages and you'll be fine. Now about the class, the first reading assignment is on the book What The Buddha Thought. It is an interesting book where we can get into history on how Buddha teaching was born and how the Buddha progresses. "Karma" is the term frequently used an it is interesting that Jain and Buddhist people has different thoughts about the word "karma". That is only one book, and we still have another 5 to read, but I'll try not to complain. I'll use this opportunity to learn things about Asia.

ASTRON 103 - The Evolving Universe

The earlier classes only talk about history, formula and stuffs, so I can't make full judgement. But when the professor said "Our universe is expanding", I recalled about some verse in al-Quran that also states that. This matter is already been told to me when I was in high school (I'm sure you all did too), but it is interesting to connect the points by yourself, and learn in by hand. I'm sure there are a lot of stuffs that I would like to know when I went through this class next time~

MATH 234 - Calculus -- Functions of Variables

One of the reasons that my last semester was boring is because there are no Math class. Seriously. I enjoyed learning Math but not to a greater extent like some people here in Madison. It is just not feel right when there is no Math class. Praise be to Allah that I can take this class this semester, so this is one of the reason for me to not slacking off. But due to some reason, I can't come to one of the two lecture classes. Nevertheless, I will still take my own time to self study and learn in advance so that I won't miss any important lesson :)

CURRIC 375 - Video Games and Learning

The reason that I can't come to Calculus class is due to this class. The lecture class and the discussion session for video games class in conflicting each other, so I decided to not come to Calculus lecture. You may think I'm crazy for doing this but I have my own reasons. First, I really want to learn how video games can educate and how to make video games educate. Second, I know I can learn Calculus by myself for the class that I missed. I know my potential. Third, I hate it when people generalized all games into the same stereotype and much worse, they being resent towards it. When we say games, what will come to mind are wasting time, noneducational, wasting money, not thought provoking, controversial, addiction, encourage violent, and whatever they may think. This is what I want to change in the society (at least those around me) on what they think about video games. It may be hard, but it is not impossible. By taking this class, it doesn't mean I abandoned all other studies. I know my duties as a student. Enough about that. For the first assignment, we need to play the game that they choose for us (Portal). Then for the first paper, we need to play a game, that we never play, for one hour and write about the game by applying the Gee's 36 Principle of Learning to it. Never had this chance back in my own country!

This is my schedule for this semester~

I'm free for Monday morning, Tuesday, evening and the whole Friday. I'll use the free time accordingly for, well, doing things I want to do and things I need to do.

Overall, I hope this semester won't turn out like last. I want to enjoy studying just like how I enjoy playing games.